Forum:Biographies vs. User Information
I'd like to open a discussion on how we might develop some examples or guidelines or both for users adding information about fan fiction authors. I would like to see these guidelines in place so that people understand the kinds of information that appear on biography pages and how much importance we place on that information being relevant to the FK universe.--Kodia 17:55, 27 January 2009 (UTC) :As I'm more familiar with reading bios, I think it would also be useful to have some idea what kind of information appears on user pages. -- Greer Watson 23:16, 27 January 2009 (UTC) In my experience at a variety of wikis, user pages are the creatures of their creators. While not forbidden from editing by others, the wikis that I have worked on tend to view editing of another person's user page to be bad form because of its personal nature. Users in the wikis I've worked on tend to put their motivations for being on the wiki, their hopes, their dreams, or even the "persona" that they use to exist in the world or universe. For example, fans on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time wiki often ally themselves with the various factions of the book's main cultures and characters. Participants on the Harry Potter wiki often claim allegiance with one of the houses associated with the Hogwart's Academy, the main setting for much of the book series. As such, that information cannot be disputed, argued, edited or reworked in the same sense that information can be in a straightforward author about an article. At best, someone can leave a message on a user's talk page and say "Hey, did you really mean that?" And in my experience, they are highly unlikely to do even that. Some people have a great deal of nonsense on their user page or simply redirect it to their user talk page to avoid the issue of user information at all (privacy concerns or sheer laziness are possible reasons too I suppose). But author pages? Wikipedia suggests that authors specifically do NOT write their own articles and merely correct factual errors that may be presented because this maintains the neutrality of the wiki in general, a major goal that all wikis at Wikia strive for. For me, the existing articles heading is is the kicker. Perhaps we could do something like they do with a Notable User template to indicate those articles that have been touched by an author on their author page? I don't know.--Kodia 23:40, 27 January 2009 (UTC) Ah, here we go. I was having trouble finding the policy statement at Wikipedia on user pages. I think the information there is useful for my understanding. I'd like to see us come closer to that policy here.--Kodia 23:56, 27 January 2009 (UTC) :It seems to me that a lot depends on what we finally decide is appropriate info to include in an author page. In a way, the same thing applies to the actor/screenwriter/etc. pages—except, of course, that they are unlikely to be written by the people themselves. :Objectivity is obviously a problem with fuller bios. Right at the moment, though, we have no bios. As far as author pages go, the minimum content is probably uncontroversial (and presumably unbiased), i.e. publications and website. :For the most part, where fan writers are concerned, we aren't dealing with people for whom much more info is readily available. Quite honestly, even things like date of birth and place of residence—which again are factual (though I guess there are those who lie about the former!)—are not that easily found out unless people tell you themselves. At least, I know that I'' am not going to strive to discover the birthdate of every fan writer who ever scribed a tale for FKFIC-L. So asking the writers themselves is really the only way to get the info. (Whether or not it is they who ultimately put it on their Author page.) :Of course, as soon as you get into critical analysis of people's stories it becomes a whole different ball game. But you also will get into the objectivity dilemma then, too—and not from the authors. Fans being fans. :So what ''do you see as the appropriate content of the Author pages? And the appropriate source of the information thereon? Given that we are dealing with the insignificant and obscure here, not the great and famous? -- Greer Watson 00:55, 28 January 2009 (UTC) The thing is I honestly don't know about the content. Frankly my gut tells me that I want to know everything that's pertinent to the wiki with regards to them. I don't know that what I want and what other people want (whether they are authors or not) is the same thing. I'm terrified this kerfluffle with the other fanfiction site will completely nix this awesome thing we have going here at the FK wiki. My brain wants everyone to be happy ultimately so I'm trying to think of ways within the context of the tools that the wiki has available that we can actually make as many people happy as possible and still maintain the wiki's integrity. Appropriate source? Again, I honestly don't know. Let's assume that we have some general factual information about someone. Could we work out some checks and balances system where an author could say "Yep that's me and I've said this information is true"? In fact, why couldn't we work out some way for an author to post some information on a sub page and say "Hey, I realize that the goal of a wiki is objectivity here, so on this author's subpage, I'm gonna blurb what I think is useful and you all write the page objectively for me, eh?" Would that work? Would it be the best path for the wiki? Maybe. Dunno. I'm grasping for ideas here. My biggest concern is this whole prior kerfluffle thing, which I know so little about. How do we deal with the user who says "Hey, that FluffyFictionWriter pen name? That's Gaylin. And this info that's special that I have? We should put the info in there." And then how do we deal with Gaylin's desire to say "Hey, that FluffyFictionWriter pen name? That was a stoopid pen name. I want that out of there. And that other info? I consider that personal and want that change or removed." How do we deal with the conflict? --Kodia 03:56, 28 January 2009 (UTC) ---- A proposal for biographical information guidelines has been started at: Proposal: Biographical Information Guidelines.--Kodia 15:15, 3 February 2009 (UTC)